Lotus

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They've been training for three days together now. Every waking moment was spent in the birthplace of kung fu, though they both didn't mind that. It was the most serene place to train and rest in.

But even then, there was something that Lotus still couldn't stand the first two nights of training. He did everything Master Shifu asked. He meditated, went through very uncomfortable conversations about his entire life, fought against the iron wood trees that would hang about the mountains until his knuckles bled, read through all of the scrolls in one sitting. Twice just to make sure he comprehended everything (which amazed Shifu).

"Not even Tai Lung read through all of these this fast..." The red panda murmured one time, making the tired panda roll his eyes. 

"Please don't compare me to your other students, Shifu," Lotus sighed, "I just already read a lot back in my village. The material of these scrolls may be hefty but reading them all was like childsplay."

And yet, with all this knowledge, all of this energy that he would give away to train and take in with wisdom (at least with what he could consume in a matter of a few days), it still was never enough. 

He still couldn't make that damn flower bloom with his chi.

On the third night, after trying all his might to make his palms glow brighter than the days before, he groaned and plopped on the ground. "I can't do this!" He buried his exhausted face in his paws.

Shifu shook his head, "Chi doesn't come when you force it. It takes a lot of patience, as life itself requires patience."

"I don't have time for patience!" Lotus' red and baggy eyes whipped towards the tiny master, "Tai Lung could come anyday now and I'm nowhere near ready to defeat him, let alone be the valley's Dragon Warrior!"

Master Shifu's ears dipped a little as he looked upon his student with sympathy, "You are ready to defeat him. But... it seems you're not ready to defeat your own inner demons. You have so much weighing you down—"

Lotus gave the master a deadpanned look, making him roll his eyes in reply.

 "—Mentally, that you can't possibly find the inner peace to lift you and your surroundings up from it's hidden roots."

"Inner peace?" The panda's expression formed into one of curiosity.

"It's... a hard lesson to learn. Possibly the hardest lesson to learn considering you don't face magic, techniques or foes to understand it... but you must face yourself." He looked to the ground solemnly.

Lotus frustratingly rested his face on his left fist while his left leg kept his arm up, "So you're saying my daddy and mommy issues that keeps messing with my identity is why I can't make my paws glow?"

Shifu sighed, "Speaking simply... yeah."

The big bear huffed while gazing at the flower, "Figures." He absent-mindedly flicked the flower with his right pinkie, before he and Shifu were caught off guard by the sudden golden aroma that invaded the flower.

It made an immediate wave of light, the impact causing Shifu and Lotus to freak out and be pushed back by it. They glanced at each other with wide eyes before glancing at the once closed-in flower... finding themselves in disbelief once they realised that same flower finally blossomed into a bright gold daffodil.

They looked back at each other, still incredulous about what they just witnessed.

Lotus rubbed his eyes to make sure his crappy sleep schedule wasn't making him see things while Shifu's jaw started to slack.